Knop, 22. So has their brother-in-law, Delbert Pider, 29, married to the only girl in the Knop family, Nicole, also 29. Their sense of service is part of their heritage, their dad says. &#8220;It&#8217;s how we live,&#8221; Joe Knop says. &#8220;These guys made a commitment and followed through.&#8221;
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Megan Lange | Muskegon ChronicleKerri Knop, 26, and husband Shawn Knop, 25, sit with their daughter, Gentry, 1, father, Joe Knop, 53, brother, Michael Knop, 28, and mother, Lisa Knop, 47. Shawn and Michael, as well as brother, Aaron "A.J." Knop, 22, and brother-in-law, Delbert Pider, have all served with the U.S. Marine Corps.This isn’t just any day for Joe and Lisa Knop.

On the day their oldest son, Mike, joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000, they cut a branch from a favorite tree outside their home in Blue Lake Township and carved a handmade pole on which to fly their U.S. flag.

“I just thought it would mean something,” Joe Knop says, “you know, a blend of home and country.”

Mike KnopShawn KnopAaron KnopPiderThe flag still flies around the clock at the Knop house, and the flag pole still stands, proud symbols of the family’s unyielding service to country every day, but especially on Veterans Day.

Since Mike Knop, now 28, joined the Marines, so have his two younger brothers Shawn Knop, 25; and Aaron (A.J.) Knop, 22. So has their brother-in-law, Delbert Pider, 29, married to the only girl in the Knop family, Nicole, also 29.

Megan Lange | Muskegon ChronicleLisa Knop, 47, has this flag symbolizing that three of her sons and son-in-law were serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.Their sense of service is part of their heritage, their dad says.

“It’s how we live,” Joe Knop says. “These guys made a commitment and followed through.”

In all, the Knop boys and Pider have served six tours in America’s war in Iraq: Sgt. Mike Knop, one tour; Sgt. Shawn Knop, three tours; and Sgt. Delbert Pider, two tours.

“We had all three of them in Iraq at the same time. That was hard, really hard,” Lisa Knop says.

“Nerve-wracking, really,” her husband adds.

Both Mike and Shawn Knop are now out of the military, proud Marine veterans.

Shawn Knop works at Johnson Technology and is going to Muskegon Community College where he’s studying industrial technology. He and his wife, Kerri, live in Montague. They have a daughter, Gentry, who will be 2 years old Nov. 23, and two children from Kerri’s previous marriage.

Pider, who is stationed at Paris Island, S.C., is a Marine drill instructor. He and his wife have two children.

Still, the family’s military duty to country continues.

Cpl. A.J. Knop, the family’s newest Marine, left in September as part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, or “readiness force,” on his way to Afghanistan — just weeks after getting married. His deployment stirs up left-over emotions for his parents who have sent so many sons to war.

“Not a lot of people know what it’s like to have so many at war at once,” Joe Knop says.

His wife listens, nodding quietly. “There are nights we don’t sleep much,” she says. “We worry; of course, we worry.”

On Veterans Day when Americans are fighting in two wars overseas, and thousands of military personnel are stationed in countries scattered across the globe, that’s what Shawn Knop wants people to know: Just how difficult being sent to war is on the families left at home.

“I know patriotic articles can sometimes seem a little repetitive,” he says, “but my parents could use some recognition for what they’ve been through so far, and what they’re still going through.”

It’s enough to make a mother and father tear up.

“We brought our kids up to believe you’re here on Earth to take care of other people,” Joe Knop says, taking a few minutes to collect his emotions. “Do you know how that makes a dad feel? These guys chose to go into the Marines ... to make a difference.”

Ironically, Joe Knop is the only Knop male who hasn’t served in the military. Now 53, he had a student deferment during the last years of the Vietnam War. But military service is in their family tree. Joe Knop’s father was in World War II. Both of Lisa Knop’s brothers were in Desert Storm, the first war in the Persian Gulf.

But there’s more than one kind of service to country, Joe Knop says. A chemist at Sun Chemical Co., he is also a Blue Lake Township Fire Department captain, a volunteer commitment he takes seriously. He and his wife, Lisa, 47, taught their sons from the time they were little to “give back.”

“It’s not just how we live, but where we live that makes a difference, he says.

When Mike Knop signed up for the Marines after graduating from Holton High School in 2000, it was a very different military than it is today. When terrorists attacked the U.S. Sept. 11, 2001, Lisa Knop remembers saying to her husband: “Mike’s life is going to change dramatically. Our kids’ lives are going to change forever.”

“We knew we were going to war,” Mike Knop says.

In 2003, his unit was among those that rescued U.S. Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch, who was taken hostage by the Iraqis. Mike Knop served eight years in the Marines, doing tours in Iraq, Kosovo and Djibouti, Africa. He also was a military recruiter.

Now a subcontractor living in Highland. Mich., he is the divorced father of two daughters.

Shawn Knop served 22 months in Iraq, almost half of his four-year hitch with the Marines. He knew he wasn’t going to make the military his career “so I wanted to give it everything I had,” he said. He volunteered for duty during the first elections in Iraq, standing guard on the rooftops and working security at the voting polls.

What he wasn’t prepared for were the questions he gets about being at war, now that he’s home.

“Seems like everyone’s formed their own opinions,” he says. “I don’t like to talk about it to strangers.”

It’s something his brother, Mike, understands.

“If you’ve walked a mile in our shoes, your opinion would change,” Mike Knop says. “You would know what we know, rather than what you see on the news.”

So they talk with each other, brothers who made a mark at Holton High School when they were students; brothers who continue to make a mark in the world with their service.

“When I was 5 years old, I told my mom I was going to go into the Marines,” Mike Knop says. “I joined for a reason, a purpose.”

That flag pole, made out of a tree branch in 2000 when he made good on his childhood promise, helps tell the story. The Knops learned early, living as they do out in the country halfway between Holton and Whitehall, that neighbors help one another; that a community is made stronger when all pitch in.